The Black Ice (hb-2)

said, holding up a paperweight. It was a glass block in which a fruit fly had been perpetually cast, like a prehistoric ant caught in amber.
    Bosch nodded and steered the interview specifically toward Mexicali. The entomologist said the breeding contractor there was a company called EnviroBreed. He said EnviroBreed shipped an average of thirty million flies to the eradication center each week.
    “How do they get here?” Bosch asked.
    “In the pupal stage, of course.”
    “Of course. But my question is how?”
    “This is the stage in which the insect is nonfeeding, immobile. It is what we call the transformation stage between larva and imago-adult. This works out quite well because it is an ideal point for transport. They come in incubators, if you will. Environment boxes, we call them. And then, of course, shortly after they get here metamorphosis is completed and they are ready to be released as adults.”
    “So when they get here, they have already been dyed and irradiated?”
    “That is correct. I said that.”
    “And they are in the pupal stage, not larva?”
    “Larvae is the plural, Detective, but, yes, that is essentially correct. I said that, also.”
    Bosch was beginning to think Edson was essentially an officious prick. He was sure they definitely called him The Fly around here.
    “Okay,” Harry said. “So what if, here in L.A., I found a larvae, I mean a larva, that was dyed but not irradiated? Is that possible?”
    Edson was silent a moment. He didn’t want to speak too soon and be wrong. Bosch was getting the idea that he was the type of guy who watched “Jeopardy” on the tube each night and barked out the answers ahead of the contestants even if he was alone.
    “Well, Detective, any given scenario is possible. I would, however, say the example you just gave is highly unlikely. As I said, our suppliers send the pupae packages through an irradiation machine before they are shipped here. In these packages we often find larvae mixed with the pupae because it would generally be impossible to completely separate the two. But these larvae samplings have been through the same irradiation as the pupae. So, no, I don’t see it.”
    “So if I had a person who on their body carried a single pupa that had been dyed but not irradiated, that person would not have come from here, right?”
    “Yes, that would be my answer.”
    “Would?”
    “Yes, Detective, that
is
my answer.”
    “Then where would this person have come from?”
    Edson gave it some thought first. He used the eraser end of a pencil he had been fiddling with to press his glasses up on the bridge of his nose.
    “I take it this person is dead, you having introduced yourself as a homicide detective and obviously being unable to ask the person this question yourself.”
    “You should be on ‘Jeopardy,’ Mr. Edson.”
    “It’s Doctor. Anyway, I couldn’t begin to guess where the person would have picked up this specimen you speak of.”
    “He could have been from one of the breeders you mentioned, down in Mexico or over in Hawaii, couldn’t he?”
    “Yes, that’s a possibility. One of them.”
    “And what’s another?”
    “Well, Mr. Bosch, you saw the security we have around here. Frankly, there are some people who are not happy with what we are doing. Some extremists believe nature should take its course. If the medfly comes to southern California, who are we to try to eradicate it? Some people believe we have no business being in this business. There have been threats from some groups. Anonymous, but nevertheless, threats to breed nonsterile medflies and release them, causing a massive infestation. Now, if I were going to do that, I might dye them to obfuscate my opponent.”
    Edson was pleased with himself on that one. But Bosch didn’t buy it. It did not fit with the facts. But he nodded, indicating to Edson that he would give it some consideration and thought. Then he said, “Tell me, how do these deliveries from the breeders get here? For example, how do they get here from the place down in Mexicali you deal with?”
    Edson said that at the breeding facility thousands of pupae were packed into plastic tubes resembling six-foot-long sausages. The tubes were then strung in cartons complete with incubators and humidifiers. The environment boxes were sealed at the EnviroBreed lab under the scrutiny of a USDA inspector and then trucked across the border and north to Los Angeles. The deliveries from EnviroBreed came two to